CPAC to Trump: You're hired!

If CPAC is a primary for self-confidence, Donald Trump won hands down.

The real-estate mogul with a genius for self-promotion gave the most-acclaimed — and most colorful — speech at the conservative gathering this afternoon, from the moment he took the stage to the song "Money, Money, Money."

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With no visible sense of irony, he slammed libertarian Ron Paul as a losing hopeful who can't capture the brass ring and got booed by some for it, said our current president came 'out of nowhere," and quoted a business magazine's story about what a terrific entrepreneur he himself is.

Yet he was by far the best-received speaker and the audience lapped up his act, as he read some of a prepared speech and used his hands to punctuate his words. He also hit on social issues "briefly," as he said, saying he's pro-life and anti-gun control. He said he'd dismantle Obama's health care law.

The ballroom attendance bulked up massively in advance of his speech, with conference staffers pleading with people to stop blocking the stairwells and doors.

"You're hired!" a fan screamed from the crowd, and he pointed back at her and said, "You're hired! These are my people. This is beautiful."

Supporters of Paul, who are notoriously rabid in defending him and whose son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, was the next speaker, booed wildly when he said, "by the way, Ron Paul can't get elected, I'm sorry. ... I like Ron Paul, I think he is a good guy but honesty he just has zero chance of getting elected and I can tell you this, if I run and if I win this country will be respected again":

He added there are "tactics and strategies involved in any form of leadership and I’m well acquainted with both. I’m also well acquainted with winning and that’s what this country needs now, winning." . The pro-Paul boos were outdone by applause from people who ate the speech up.

"It's a wonderful forum and an honor to be here," he said. "While I'm not at this time a candidate for the presidency, I will decide by June whether or not I will become one and I will tell you the reason that I'm thinking about it is the US has become a whipping post for the rest of the world. The world is treating us without respect, they are not treating us properly."

He added there was no "quality leadership," and said "the U.S. is becoming the laughingstock of the world."

"I deal with people in China," he said, as a way of showing he knows how other countries view America.

"Our current president came out of nowhere — in fact I'll go a step further," he said. "The people who went to school with him, they never saw him, they don't know who he is."

He called Obama a "wonderful guy, nice man, but there is no record."

He cited his own experience in business, and said he'd been called "the world's most competitive business person."

"I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what the [a magazine article] said," he declared — adding that he is "known for my candor. I've had a lot of great victories and I may be willing to put that to work."